Three Brighton Beach police officers pleaded not guilty on charges of intimidation and defeating the course of justice in the Durban Regional Court on Wednesday.
- Three Brighton Beach police officers pleaded not guilty on charges of intimidation and defeating the course of justice in the Durban Regional Court on Wednesday.
- The trial surrounds an alleged police cover up in a rape case in 2023. The perpetrator was subsequently convicted in 2025.
- CCTV footage shows the alleged victim was detained for more than two hours, while the man who raped her sat outside her holding cell.
Three Brighton Beach police officers, who are accused of a cover up in a 2023 rape case, pleaded not guilty to charges of intimidation and defeating the course of justice in the Durban Regional Court on Wednesday.
Phila Xulu (37) and Sanele Zuma (48) pleaded not guilty to intimidation. The state alleges that they initially coerced a rape victim into withdrawing charges against Zwelakhe Mashaba, who was later convicted of the rape in 2025 after the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) became involved.
Co-accused, Gugulethu Buthelezi (43), pleaded not guilty to a charge of defeating the course of justice. Buthelezi is alleged to have unlawfully released Mashaba on 27 March, before he appeared before a magistrate, using a 328 form. (A 328 form informs a suspect that they are free to go on a warning because there is insufficient evidence against them.)
The incident dates back to 4 March 2023, when Mashaba raped the victim (we will refer to her as Q) at knifepoint in the Bluff area, south of Durban.
Q, who knew the suspect, reported him to Brighton Beach police station. Q had to request assistance twice.
Then on 27 March 2023, Mashaba and Q were brought to the police station, but only Q, the victim, was detained.
IPID investigator Michael Viljoen testified that IPID became involved in the case on 28 March 2023 at the request of the public prosecutor for police misconduct.
Viljoen said he submitted two letters to the station for assistance with the investigation, but he received no response. At the time, Mashaba was free and Viljoen placed Q in a witness protection programme for her safety.
Viljoen read into evidence excerpts from the police station’s Occurrence Book (a logbook of incidents and actions taken daily). One entry said Mashaba was arrested for “drunkenness”, not rape, and released later.
Viljoen then presented multiple angles of CCTV footage of Q and Mashaba being brought to the station on 27 March 2023. The two-hour-long footage shows Q visibly distressed, while Xulu and Buthelezi are seen arguing with her and holding a police docket.
Near the two hour mark, Q can be seen signing a form and handing it over to Xulu, walking to the end of her cell, and burying her head in her hands.
Viljoen said Q was distraught and appeared to have been intimidated by the accused into signing the form.
The court did not hear what information was on the form.
In the footage, Mashaba can be seen sitting outside the holding cell on an office chair with an ankle cuff attached on one end to the bars of the cell.
In a joint statement before presiding Magistrate Mayne Mewalall, all three accused claimed they were victims of “malicious prosecution” and suggested the charges were fuelled by a factional conflict between police units stationed at the same precinct.
The defence attorneys, Clinton Short (for Buthelezi and Zuma) and Ayanda Mkhwanazi (for Xulu), argued that their clients were being targeted as part of “workplace politics”, and claimed the National Prosecuting Authority was backing one police unit while victimising another. They say the case is an internal, politically-driven “malicious prosecution”.
The accused had their bail extended. The trial is expected to resume on Thursday, with more examination of CCTV footage.
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